Luke Powell

Spending so much time in the sun on the beaches of California means that Luke has a thorough tan and sun-bleached hair. His hair is always cut short and naturally a light brown colour. He has hazel eyes and a kind smile. Luke is quite well-built for his age but currently has a young skinny frame that should likely fill out much more with age. Due to being a sporty character, he has a healthy and athletic physique and stands about average height for an eleven year old boy.

Luke was born and raised in Malibu as an only child to his single mother, Ellen Hart. His father, Johnny Powell, was a surfer in his youth and apparently unready to settle down with his then-girlfriend when she became pregnant with his child. Johnny has since settled down many miles up the Californian coast from Luke in Half Moon Bay where he works as a mentor for younger surfers. He is married to a woman named Alex and the couple have a baby on the way. Luke sees his father fairly regularly but not as often as he would like, and it is Luke who has to put in the effort. Leanne, Ellen’s half-sister (from her father’s side), has lived with Ellen and Luke for numerous years now and it is unlikely that she will be going anywhere anytime soon. Luke’s divorced grandmother, Belinda Fennelly, is also a significant character in his life. Belinda lives just two doors down from Luke and runs an expensive beach house B&B. She has always been heavily involved in Luke’s upbringing, often taking care of him so that Ellen can work. Luke lives in a Malibu beach house that was commissioned by his great-uncle (maternal and through marriage), Ivan Curtis, for Ellen when she fell pregnant with him unmarried and it was clear that Johnny wasn’t going to stick around. Since then, Ivan has bought most of the land and residences either side of their house (he had previously owned what is now Belinda’s B&B which he sold to her later on). Ivan therefore owns the Beach Club next door to Luke and three houses on the other side which he has made into holiday homes, popular with witches and wizards looking for an escape to the coast. Ellen manages the holiday homes for him, as well as the Beach Club which is primarily used as a wedding venue but can also be booked for occasions such as meetings, parties, etc. Also next door to Luke is an area of land known by its inhabitants as “the lot”, which is again owned by Ivan. He did not buy the vacant lot with the intention to build on it but instead allows numerous witches and wizards, primarily surfers, to construct temporary beach huts on it free of charge. Luke is very much involved with the people on the lot, seeing as they also use his house for toilet facilities (Ivan had extra bathrooms made for this purpose when the lot squatters first came) and they are like family to him, especially Mack Hart who is actually his great-uncle. Although surrounded by many witches and wizards and being closely linked to important pureblood families such as the Curtises, Luke also grew up with heavy involvement in the muggle world. He attended muggle elementary school in order to learn to gain a basic level of education required for future attendance at Sonora and as a result picked up a number of muggle friends. Since the magical surfing community is a small one, they often enter muggle surfing competitions and cannot afford the same prejudices against such people that many others of their backgrounds might possess.